COP27: ‘No room for fossil fuel renaissance’, says Olaf Scholz

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged the world not to lose sight of ­renewable energy targets despite the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech at the leaders summit of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday. Picture: AFP

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged the world not to lose sight of ­renewable energy targets despite the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“There must not be a worldwide renaissance of fossil fuels,” Mr Scholz told the COP27 climate change summit in Egypt.

“And for Germany I can say: there will not be one.”

Europe’s largest economy has been squeezed hard as Russian ­energy imports have dwindled and prices have risen since the outbreak of war in February.

Long reliant on imports from Moscow to meet its energy needs, Germany has scrambled to shore up its supplies in the face of potential winter shortages.

As a result, officials had made the decision to restart mothballed coal power plants “for a short time”, Mr Scholz said.

Germany would “stick to our exit from coal”, with Berlin targeting a complete end for the fossil fuel in 2030.

As well as falling back on coal, Germany has invested billions of dollars into new infrastructure for the import of natural gas from new sources, such as the US or Qatar.

Such liquefied natural gas terminals will in time be retrofitted for the import of hydrogen, officials say.

The pressure Russia has been able to exercise by cutting supplies showed that the move away from fossil fuels was a “security policy imperative”, the Chancellor said.

Less global warming meant “fewer droughts and floods, fewer conflicts over resources, less hunger and fewer bad harvests – and more security and well-being for all”.

Germany would up its investments in international environmental programs, Mr Scholz said, bringing the total to €6bn ($9.3bn) for the protection of forests alone through to 2025. The money would mostly be invested via partnership programs with countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Madagascar and Pakistan, according to the development ministry.

Earlier, Kenyan President William Ruto said the crushing ­impacts of climate change were ­already a “living nightmare” for people across Africa.

The two-week summit at the resort town of in Sharm-el-Sheikh is set to be dominated by calls from developing countries that rich polluters pay for the harm their emissions have already caused, known as “loss and damage”.

“Africa contributes less than 3 per cent of the pollution responsible for climate change, but it’s most severely impacted by the ­ensuing crisis,” Mr Ruto said.

 The worst drought in 40 years is gripping Kenya and the wider Horn of Africa region, threatening millions with starvation – with the UN warning Somalia is on the brink of a famine for the second time in just over a decade.

About 2.5 million livestock have died in Kenya this year alone, Mr Ruto said, causing economic losses of more than $US1.5bn ($2.3bn).

Poorer countries successfully fought to have the issue of loss and damage officially put on the COP27 agenda, -despite reluctance over the issue from richer nations, wary of open-ended compensation for the damage caused by climate-induced natural disasters.

But observers caution that this is only a first step towards what ­developing nations hope will be a specific fund to help with climate impacts.

“Loss and damage is not an ­abstract topic of endless dialogue,” Mr Ruto said. “It is our daily ­experience and the living nightmare for millions of Kenyans, and hundreds of millions of Africans.”

He said the country had had to reallocate funds budgeted for education and health for an emergency food relief program for 4.3 million Kenyans, adding that “climate change is directly threatening our people’s lives, health and future”.

Wildlife had not been spared in the country rich with biodiversity. “Carcasses of elephants, zebras, wildebeest and many other wild fauna litter our parks,” he said, adding the government has spent $US3m on supplying feed and water to animals in distress in the past three months.

Wealthy nations have failed to provide a pledged $US100bn a year from 2020 to developing ­nations to help them build resilience and green their economies, reaching just $83bn, according to the UN.

This is a “major cause for persisting distrust”, Mr Ruto said.

AFP